A War We Cannot Win The Spy 2
by Skrain Dukat
Summary: The Federation may have lost control of DS9 but they haven't lost hope. Delia is promoted under false pretenses. Brendan isn't sure he made the right decision. Garak knows more than he lets on. And what happens when that chip in her brain is activated?


Author's Note: Expect delays with this as I work to rewrite The Spy, the prequel to this one. There's just some things I'm not happy with in it. Also, expect this one to be long.

Disclaimer: Aside from the Grissom family, Gilly the cat, and Brendan Tarr, all characters and locations belong to Paramount, I believe.

Star Trek

Deep Space Nine:

A War We Cannot Win

(Sequel to The Spy)

By Emmaline Westlund

one

Brendan Tarr

I was still awake at 0300 hours, and so I took a walk down the promenade. There weren't very many businesses open, not even Quark's, and that was really saying something. The occupation of the station was not going over very well with those who'd remained behind, which, much to my delight, included Delia Grissom's father, Richard. The grandfather of my child, which Delia was pregnant with.

As Delia's loyalties were rather uncertain when Dukat and Weyoun had last spoken of her, I naturally assumed that she was still under strict control, or she was going to be poisoned to death at any minute.

On one level, the thought of her dying made me want to die. On another level, I only was a little concerned for my kid. But the vast majority of what I felt was a sense of impending relief. If she just spilled her guts and got herself killed, she wouldn't be there to distract me anymore.

"What do you think you're doing out this late?" Gul Dukat, the man recently revealed to me as my father, something I had stubbornly rejected, snapped, approaching me from behind.

"Couldn't sleep," I replied, "is that a crime?" Something deep in him seemed to light on fire, and even I had to admit that his expression was just short of terrifying as he turned so we were chest to chest.

"If you are not currently on duty, stay in your quarters. No sense in mingling with the Bajorans. They'll be gone soon enough."

"I just wanted to clear my head. I'm new to not having a conscience. It's not exactly a pleasant habit to try to break."

"Conscience? What does that have to do with any of this? We simply retook what was rightfully ours."

Delia Grissom

It was a day I had been dreading. Nightmares had haunted me for weeks after I was informed that I was to receive a promotion, the promotion Captain Sisko had put in for me to get. But everything leading up to that promotion was a lie, and the fact that it was actually happening made me feel dirty. Dirtier even than the chip in my head that broadcast my thoughts to the Dominion made me feel.

We were back on Earth to strategize, so I stayed at home with my mom who had made it to one of the ships that helped evacuate DS9 while my father apparently had not; and my sister Kelly, who was in her second year of Starfleet Academy. She wanted to be an engineer.

"We're leaving again tomorrow after the whole… thing…" I explained after returning from a meeting with the Captain. I moved my hands like I was pinning something on my uniform shirt, and my mom hugged me for about the 90th time since I'd told her about the promotion.

"Not even a year out of the Academy and you're already a Lieutenant!"

_I didn't even earn it!_ I felt like screaming it at her. Instead, because I knew she wouldn't take too kindly to my flopping around on the floor as a Dominion neurotoxin killed me for betraying my secret, I simply corrected her, "Lieutenant _Junior Grade_, mom, not a Lieutenant. I'm not like Dax."

"Oh excuse me miss Lieutenant Junior Grade, I'm just proud of my daughter! Moving on up in the galaxy!"

"Mother please, she obviously doesn't want to make a big deal about it. Why don't you go back to planning that baby shower she doesn't want to have?" Kelly appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. At 14, she barely stood as tall as my mom's shoulders, and I was a good three inches taller than Mom. But she could command attention, and more importantly in Starfleet, she could command respect.

"And why shouldn't she have a baby shower? Despite where the baby came from I'm sure that it will be beautiful and loved and if she doesn't have a baby shower she's going to regret it. Especially being a young single mother-"

"Mom, stop. I've already told you. I've arranged for the baby to be adopted. I don't want anything to do with it once it's out of me."

Gilly sensed the tension and came out from my old bedroom, looking for attention. I scooped her up immediately and buried my face in her side. "Oh Gil, I hate to leave you here with these people, but I have to find Dad. And beat the Dominion."

"_As if you have a chance of doing any of that. No, you'll just hang back until we need you again… Until a point where you are no longer useful. You know what happens when that happens, don't you?_" Gul Dukat's voice spat in my head. I did my very best not to react. I hadn't heard anything from the Dominion since they took over the station.

"You know we'll take extra good care of Gilly while you're off becoming a war hero, right sis?" Kelly asked, touching my shoulder. I realized that I still had my face buried in Gilly's fur.

_Oh I know you'll take good care of her. That's why I'm leaving her with you. I won't be back, Kel, _I thought, _don't ever think I won't come back for her if I'm still breathing._

"_Good thing you won't be doing that much longer, then," _Brendan's voice was the one I heard now, and his voice usually meant trouble_. "We know you plan to try to spill your secret when you see Sisko tomorrow. I urge you to wait until you're not surrounded by people. The toxin in those chips is bad. It doesn't affect Cardassians, but I saw what it did to a Bajoran prisoner here… Your parents don't need to see that."_

_My mom won't be attending and I'm assuming that the Dominion has something to do with my father's disappearance._ I snarled in my head, and found myself snarling at my sister, too.

"What the hell's with you? You've changed, Delia."

I stared at her blankly. _"Speak you idiot, now."_ Dukat's voice. "Kelly, did Mom tell you what happened to me?"

"Well, I know from the news. You were the only survivor-"

"One of two survivors, Kel."

"_Don't push it,"_ Dukat warned.

"Anyway, the point is, you went through a lot. I mean, it's pretty obvious. But I can't be there for you if you push me away and act like a psycho."

I scoffed. "Kelly, I was tortured for weeks on Cardassia Prime. I was left in a sensory deprivation chamber for more than five days. Beaten. Threatened. Now you tell me, how should I act? Because I think I'm doing pretty well despite all of this!" I gestured to the scars on my neck, trailing my hands down to the belly that was beginning to really become noticeable, hands lingering there. "I have a job to do, and things like tomorrow, _travesties_ like tomorrow, aren't helping my career. I don't deserve a promotion. I survived but only because they didn't want to kill me."

"What do you mean?"

"_You've said enough."_

"Look at what Cardassians have done in the past. Look at what the Dominion has done. Do you really think I, your big sister who can't even defend herself from _you_, had any chance of survival against such violent enemies? They didn't want me dead. I'm getting a promotion because the Dominion…" I trailed off. My vision was blurring and I had a very strange headache.

"_You would be wise to listen to Gul Dukat when he tells you you've said enough,"_ Another voice, an unfamiliar voice, hissed. I leaned back in my chair, letting Gilly down onto my lap.

"Delia?" Kelly asked, moving to the edge of her chair, "Hey- Delia, are you okay?"

I moved my head, hoping that I nodded, I couldn't tell past the headache that was building near the base of my skull, pulsating outwards. It was as though my spine was on fire.

_I did it, _I thought, _I pissed them off enough for them to activate that chip._

"_Bravo, it took you just long enough to figure that out to not be able to call for hel-" _I heard a voice say, but I couldn't figure out who said it.

"_What have you done? Delia- Dukat, what did you do?"_

_Brendan?_ The name popped into my head while everything else was disappearing. My sister was screaming but I couldn't make out what she was saying.

And suddenly, everything was quiet.


End file.
